India’s Pahalgam Propaganda and the Long History of Misinformation Against Pakistan

India’s recent propaganda campaign around the Pahalgam incident is no one-off aberration, but the latest in a very long, perilous narrative of warfare waged through narratives against Pakistan. Rather than a local miscommunication or missing communication, the Indian state has long used fabricated news, forged narratives, and manipulation to demonize Pakistan globally. By doing so, New Delhi not only distorts facts but aggravates tensions, reinforces distrust, and thwarts the chances of regional peace.

Pahalgam incident, in which India too quickly blamed Pakistan for a militant attack on Hindu pilgrims, is a classic case of reflexive disinformation. Within minutes of the attack, Indian media outlets burst with unsubstantiated accusations, sensationalized headlines, and imagery calculated to incite anti-Pakistan hatred. No investigation. No evidence. Pure instant demonization. The story was too good to be true: a holy Hindu pilgrimage sullied by bloodshed, with Pakistan immediately cast in the role of the perpetrator. In fact, even Indian security experts were left scratching their heads at the absence of credible forensic or operational intelligence to substantiate the charges, but the story had already caused its harm, worldwide trending hashtags, hot talk show arguments, and a fresh cycle of hate that made Pakistan the eternal villain.

This is nothing new. India has an extensive and perilous history of using information as a battlefield. From the 2019 Pulwama attack, when New Delhi carried out airstrikes without providing international proof, to the disinformation machine uncovered by the EU DisinfoLab, India has deliberately built an international echo chamber of lies. The EU DisinfoLab 2020 report exposed an enormous fake news machinery operated by Indian forces: more than 750 spurious media outlets, dozens of occupied NGOs, and identity theft of even deceased UN officials, all to vilify Pakistan, and yet, with such breathtaking disclosures, the Indian state was hardly held accountable. Instead, it redoubled its effort at narrative warfare.

The real tragedy is in the exploitation of human suffering. Each time there is violence in Kashmir or trouble is fomented close to the LoC, India’s reaction is not justice, it is spin. Instead of examining its own militarized occupation of Kashmir, its prolonged silencing of Kashmiri voices, or its repressive laws like AFSPA and UAPA, India shifts the blame to Pakistan. It is a tactic of diversion, and a heartless one. It denies Kashmiris their agency and distorts their traumas to market a geopolitical agenda.

The case of Pahalgam is particularly grotesque because it occurred in the context of Modi’s broader Hindutva project, which seeks to fuse religious identity with nationalism. Every year, the Amarnath Yatra is turned into a spectacle of Hindu resurgence, heavily guarded by Indian troops in a territory that cries out for demilitarization, and when tragedy strikes, instead of introspection or accountability, the Indian state finds it politically convenient to frame Pakistan as the eternal aggressor.

Pakistan, on the other hand, has always demanded dialogue, openness, and international supervision. Islamabad invited UN inquiries in Kashmir, acceded to bilateral demarches, and even issued invitations for Cross-Line-of-Control pilgrimages, but each gesture has been swamped by the megaphones of Indian propaganda. It is not only unfair, it is perilous.

It is time the world desists from accepting Indian accounts as they stand. Too long, the West has delegated its knowledge of South Asia to Indian media and think tanks and dismissed Pakistan’s evidence-based refutations. The weaponization of narratives cannot be the new normal in international diplomacy. Each repeated lie becomes a policy rationale. Each repeated false flag becomes a cause for war.

The Pahalgam episode can recede from the headlines, but it must be made into a case study on how propaganda eats away at the truth, fuels conflict, and destabilizes regions. Pakistan not only needs to counter India’s propaganda but also unmask it, chronicle it, and insist on accountability in all international fora. The war of words has become a war against truth, and truth, more than ever before, is Pakistan’s strongest weapon.